I'm stepping away from industry throwbacks this week, having just run across this classic photograph. My best guess is that I'm about six years old and yes, you guessed it, a fashion statement even then - that's me in the black and white stripes. Besides my sense of style or complete lack of it, I'm impressed that whoever took the shot printed it and gave us a copy. While I recognize a couple of kids, I have no idea who most of them are or why we were all in one location.

However, besides my usual point about having fun with throwback images, here's a new one - dress your kids so they at least look cool. Seriously, my shorts are the longest ones there and they're too big. My shoes look like new sneaks or white bucks and I'm not sure where the shirt came from. I'm one step away from a photograph of the bunny suit on the kid in Christmas Story!

So, today is a plea - years from now you don't want your kids coming after you because you had no taste! You don't want to get a call like the one I'm going to make to my Dad this morning and simply ask,

That's an awesome photo Skip, I have one like it but kind of the opposite. My parents emigrated from Britain to Canada and dressed me up like an English school kid when we went out on weekends. Crisp white shirt, club tie, and grey flannel shorts and knee socks with polished brown Oxford dress shoes that gave me blisters. Exactly, "what were they thinking?"

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"Why?"

Check out"Why?" one of the most popular features on the SCU Blog.It's a very simple concept - one image, one artist and one short sound bite. Each artist shares what makes the image one of their most favorite. We're coming up on 100 artists featured since the project started. Click on the link above and you can scroll through all of the episodes to date.

Authors

Skip Cohen is President of SCU, founder of Marketing Essentials International and past president of Rangefinder Publishing and WPPI. He's been an active participant in the photographic industry since joining Hasselblad USA in 1987 as president. He has co-authored six books on photography and actively supports dozens of projects each year involving photographic education.

Scott Bourne

Scott Bourne was the first Dean of Marketing at SCU. He helped to establish this blog as a resource for aspiring and working professional photographers. He's an educator, artist, author and from time to time you'll see his name on guest posts that are always relevant to photography and marketing!